That Other Girl
by foreverfallingfast
Summary: It is a story, a legend that is passed down through the years...one character is often forgotten, though she is present every time...there is always That Other Girl.


A/N::

Soooo, now I try my hand at Legend of Zelda. I dunno, I just always thought the parallels between other characters besides Link, Zelda, and Ganon were interesting. THUS- this. 8D

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It's a story, a legend that has been passed down for generations. The Hero who saves the Princess and defeats the Tyrant. Other characters flit through the tales—there are Shadows, Companions, Allies, and Cowards at every turn, though they often change forms.

One character is often forgotten, though she is present every time. The Hero and the Princess seem to be destined for each other, but there is always another getting in the way. There is always That Other Girl.

The first time she awakens, her spirit is split. She is a both a child of the Kokiri and a child of the Field, of the farm. She has short green hair and bright green eyes and is both playful and oh-so-wise. She watches the Hero—her Hero—grow from a tiny baby to a solemn and quiet child. She protects him fiercely from the other Fairy Children and their cruel taunts. She is there for everything; she is his only friend. She monopolizes his time and is his strength and the only one he trusts. She is Saria, she is the Sage of the Forest, and she would be lying if she said he was nothing but a friend. Saria watches as Mido and the other Kokiri bully him and exile him after what happened with the Great Deku Tree. She gives him her blessing and her Ocarina to guide his journey. She knows in her heart that she will never see him again the way he is know.

She has fiery hair and a temper to match and a singing voice beautiful enough to bring the Goddesses to hear. Her life as Malon is so very different from her life as Saria. As Malon she has responsibilities and duties, but she is happier than ever before. She loves the wide feel of the plains around her and the openness of the sky despite the walls protecting the ranch from bandits. She loves all the horses, especially her Epona. She loves her mother still and her father so much more since her mother's death. She even loves Ingo, despite his attitude and odd behavior. Her small heart is so full of love already that it is no wonder that the first time she sees the Hero she falls in love with him automatically. Though he is still so quiet and shy and is pursuing the Princess, she knows that he will remember her.

And remember he does. Even though the next time she sees him he is older and sharper and has seen things no one should see, he remembers. Even though she's older and quieter and has lived through her father's disappearance and knowing her country is dying, she is ecstatic to be reunited with her fairy boy. Malon watches as the Hero beats Ingo in a race and escapes with her Epona and sleeps well that night knowing that two of her three favorite things in the world are safe and together. Then her father returns and she knows that her fairy boy had something to do with it and she loves him even more.

The Hero stops by every now and again for milk and conversation. They grow closer and closer, but one day, he's just not there. It hurts, it really does, and she goes to the Princess to get the whole story. Nothing is ever the same, though she pretends it is. Malon meets her end by raiding Gerudo thieves not long after.

When That Other Girl next awakens, she is devastated. Her Hero is lost to her—her one great love is now unreachable. She awakens under the name Aryll, and she is sister to her beloved. As it turns out, not that much damage is done; though the Hero now looks at the pirate, Tetra, with the eyes he turned upon her in a different life, she is still at the forefront of his mind. She remains his favorite girl, the one he would go to the ends of the earth to rescue. It gives her immense satisfaction to know that she has won once more. She even finds that, as Aryll, she does not mind Tetra's presence. Tetra makes the Hero happy, and that is all she wants. Even if it means that she cannot have him herself. Though her beloved Hyrule Field is gone, her horses gone, her forest gone, she finds in her heart the same love for the ocean, the islands, and the gulls. She loves the feel of the spray on her face and the waves rocking her to sleep. Though at times she despairs, this life is not so bad. She does not want it to end, though end it does. Aryll grows to be an adult, but her life is cut short after a storm ravages the Great Sea and she is swept overboard.

She awakens many times, but each one she has a different name and face but her love for her Hero only grows and grows. Sometimes she is his sister, or his cousin, or his lover, or only a friend, but each time he is everything she needs and wants.

She only loses once. She has awakened as Ilia, a young woman in the small village of Ordon. She has known the Hero from long before he came into his destiny. Once again she is close to her Epona, though the horse still seems to prefer the Hero. She finds herself humming a song from a world away, a song to bring the Hero home to her, to the forests they both know so well. Even when she is captured and spirited away, she never loses her faith, though for a while she loses herself. She is rescued by her Hero and he restores her memories, but it is not the same. Never the same. She sees her Hero turning those blue eyes not on her, but on the imp-girl at his side. _Midna._ The little Princess of Twilight, with her sarcastic attitude, demanding personality, and mystic powers. Ilia cannot hope to compete. So she smiles, wishes him well, and goes home. She prays for his happiness and success every night, and wishes for bright red hair and a temper to match, or a child's playful but oh-so-wise smile, or the love between a sister and brother. She does not see him again for several months, and when he returns he is a changed man. He is covered in scars and tainted with the pain of loss. She pulls from him in fragments how Midna left him, and how Ganondorf could have killed him but didn't and then the Hero stabbed him for his mercy, and how Zelda tried to make it all better but didn't know how. They marry, but it is a shadow of what once was.

As the years and lives and legends go by, That Other Girl begins to grow weary. Her spirit is weighed down with all the tragedy she has seen and all the pain she has failed to alleviate. Instead of wide-eyed prayers to the Goddesses, she forsakes them. Not even the love she has for her Hero can save her. She does not have the same divine duty as do the Hero and the Princess to focus her and keep her spirit full of life. Eventually, she knows, she will fade away. For she has always been nothing but love personified, and when she can no longer find in her love for life, or country, or Goddesses, she is nothing at all.

She will always be on the periphery of legend, flitting in and out of the limelight. If you look close enough, her shade affects all aspects of life. That Other Girl is support, and love, and trust. She is childhood and naiveté, she is faith and understanding.

And yet…

None of that was enough to save her.


End file.
